PARTICIPATION IN THE UK NATIONAL QUANTUM TECHNOLOGIES SHOWCASE, LONDON, 2024.

Outreach activity by Doctoral Candidate Sergio Javier Bustos Juárez.

On November 8th, 2024, Doctoral Candidate Sergio Juárez participated the UK National Quantum Technologies Showcase in London, an annual event that brings together researchers, industry leaders, and the public to explore the transformative potential of quantum technology. This year’s showcase provided an exciting opportunity to share the progress being made in quantum innovations that could soon shape our digital society.

More info on the quantum showcase:
https://iuk-business-connect.org.uk/events/uk-national-quantum-technologies-showcase-2024/

In his presentation, Sergio raised public awareness of a pressing issue facing today’s encryption systems: the looming threat of quantum computing. He explained how “store now, decrypt later” tactics pose an urgent challenge, as adversaries could store sensitive encrypted data today, intending to unlock it once quantum computers become powerful enough. Emphasising the need for action now, he introduced the audience to a powerful, already viable solution: quantum key distribution (QKD). Together with other members of the Toshiba Cambridge Research Laboratory, he demonstrated how QKD can already be employed to secure our most sensitive data from current and future threats, showcasing the real-world readiness of this technology.

A key point of Sergio’s presentation was the future of QKD, with particular focus on twin-field QKD (TF-QKD), an advanced protocol that offers even greater reach and efficiency for secure quantum communication. He presented experimental results showing how TF-QKD can be implemented within existing telecom infrastructure and demonstrated the off-band phase stabilisation technique that made these results possible, suggesting that this technique could become a standard for the future.

This research is publicly available at https://arxiv.org/pdf/2405.11990.

Events like the Quantum Showcase allow the public to become more aware of both the advantages and potential drawbacks of quantum technologies and how they promise to improve our computational capabilities while keeping our information secure.